Sol 6.1

  1. This is the sanctuary, young man; alight in its precincts,

    And bow there in reverence for its sanctity.

  2. And if you reach an encampment on its right,

    After arriving, be lavish in your greeting.

  3. Lodge in the unconsecrated ground, and line your eyes with dust,

    And kiss the earth, and prostrate yourself toward its prayer-direction.

  4. Aspire to what lies above the crown of the stars, but do not

    Hope to reach what lies within its canopies.

  5. Beware the lions of al-Shara if you are hunting,

    For their red blade-edges stand between you and its gazelle.

  6. By God, an encampment whose tent-pegs, whenever driven,

    The lovesick lover wishes were driven into his own heart!

  7. At its valley bend, how many a soul has perished in anguish,

    And how many a burning liver has fallen on its lava plain!

  8. There no man could safeguard his heart

    For a single day, even were it gripped in all his ten fingers.

  9. Ask there for whatever you wish, except safety for

    Wounded hearts, or union with its women.

  10. The master of the sword and the lady of the eyelid are equal there:

    For each, death is coupled to their stroke.

  11. Veils will never conceal the lights of beauty there,

    For its veiled lady is like its cloud-born crescent.

  12. The devil of passion has created coquetry there,

    And risen to summon others to the devil of its enchantment.

  13. And beauty there, for the sovereign of desire, has taken

    With its two hands, each heart's pledge of allegiance.

  14. Its moons carry Indian steel,

    Guarding the maiden suns among its crescents.

  15. For God's sake, people of this camp, pity one sick with love,

    Who answers the echo of your songs with his lament.

  16. A guest has come to you as a phantom comes;

    The wind of his sigh has borne him to you.

  17. A lover drowned by desire in the deep sea of his tears—

    Where, then, is the Noah of your favor for his ship?

  18. For God's sake, pity a soul stricken in the breast by you, whose

    Mingled humors have flowed out, yearning for you, in his breath.

  19. He loved you so you would love him, and wandered distraught, not

    Knowing that his love is his ordeal with its dots misplaced.

  20. You kept the little pearls of your smiling mouths

    From him, and were jealous over the ruby of his tear.

  21. How many a captive, sleep kept from him by bondage to you,

    Has ransomed your ailing eyelids with his health!

  22. O rulers of injustice against us, from your supple forms

    Learn justice, and follow its way!

  23. My heart is pledged to one of you; and as for another,

    Here is my blood, shed unavenged upon his cheek.

  24. And this one bears my eyes' offspring as a mole on his rosy cheek,

    And that one has stolen my sleep with his eye.

  25. I would ransom with you every slender-waisted beauty whose forelock

    Recites to us the story of Pharaoh and his band.

  26. As though he shared in what al-Khidr attained,

    For his lips hold the taste of al-Khidr's draught.

  27. I seek refuge with you for myself from the magic of your eyes,

    For the source of my affliction lies in its calamity.

  28. In every desired kind among your charms,

    A kind of death comes to us in its shape.

  29. My heart almost, when the breeze passes by you

    And over it, grows hot in the fire of its jealousy.

  30. Ah, how lovely the bright days that passed with us

    Amid wishes fulfilled, and our nights in its crimson glow!

  31. Hours of intimacy clothed the face of time in radiance,

    As though they were moons within its darkness.

  32. How often we were made to inhale the sweet herbs of union there

    By the hand of favor, which gave us the cup of its delight!

  33. As though the gentleness of their east breeze in their late afternoons

    Were the gentleness of the vizier Husayn toward his subjects.

  34. We enjoyed them and felt safe from every mishap,

    As though we lived in the days of his rule.

  35. They passed, and to this day, to my mind, nothing surpasses them

    In all time, save the day of his victory.

  36. A day on which the eyes of enemies weep,

    And the sword smiles, dyed with his might.

  37. Death fills goblets of gore to the brim on it,

    And the spear sways, drunk on its wine.

  38. And sin has become glad and exultant,

    While the lion laments, bereaved of his brothers.

  39. He hurled against it a seething host whose slender lances,

    Like vipers, had drunk the venom of his resolve.

  40. An army whose dust, whenever it marches, clothes the sky,

    And the sun stumbles in the trailing skirts of its dust cloud.

  41. Its armor is resolve, born of its commander's sound guidance,

    And its white banners are the counsels of his wisdom.

  42. When mountains stand in its way during a raid,

    They call one another to depart, shunning its tread.

  43. You see in it every valiant warrior, in every battle,

    Finding the fulfillment of his wishes in his death.

  44. A noble warrior—when the armor's rippling pool envelops him,

    You imagine, from his appearance, a serpent in its adornment.

  45. And if you tuck a sword beneath your arm, you deem it fate,

    Running on, with deaths running beneath its power.

  46. So their encampment, when he attacked it at dawn,

    Came to shed tears over the slain in its courtyard.

  47. Its stronghold crowned the blows with heads,

    And spear-thrusts there reddened the cheek of its soil.

  48. It knew not whether to rejoice at Husayn's conquest of it

    When he took it, or to receive condolences for its dear ones.

  49. A conquest came to it, while fasting was its garb,

    And it shook its flanks in the brocade of its robe of honor.

  50. Its beginning grayed its temples with terrors,

    Yet became the first day of its youth.

  51. A conquest the heights of glory regard as the light of their eyes,

    And its festal day robes itself in glory.

  52. Whenever narrators come to recount it, there flare

    Censers of incense from the words of its tale.

  53. Ask al-Hufuf about the Bedouins: how much they left

    Of treasures and gardens upon its ground!

  54. And ask the army about them: how often, among them, did

    The storms of victory blast away a neck-ring at its onslaught!

  55. They were not the first people he greeted who then rebuffed him,

    Only to be destroyed by volleys from his spearheads.

  56. The broad expanse narrows in the eyes of their fugitive

    From fear, and narrower still is the armor of his cunning.

  57. O Khalidis, you betrayed your master's covenant.

    Why did you not keep faith and fear the might of his onslaught?

  58. Yahya summoned you to your master, so that you might draw

    From his light, but you were scorched by the fire of his brand.

  59. From his army, a thunderbolt's fire burned you—

    What, then, if the radiance of his face were unveiled?

  60. You opposed him with sorcery born of your imaginings,

    But he was Moses, and Yahya was like his serpent.

  61. Your Samiri led you astray from your guidance,

    Until you took the calf of his error for a god.

  62. You enjoyed prosperity and gardens, until you were driven out

    By Iblis, and gained the disgrace of his curse.

  63. Barrak, your lord granted you no favor of his, nor

    Were you singled out for blessings from his gifts.

  64. You disowned your second lord and betrayed him;

    Your deprivation of his favor is punishment enough.

  65. O ornament of kingship—rather, crown of its eminence!

    And adornment of pride—rather, embroidery of its robe!

  66. If any descendants remained of the conquest of Amorium,

    Among its sons or its kin,

  67. Then this conquest of yours is its matchless twin,

    And this victory of yours is the twin shoot of its palm.

  68. If al-Mu'tasim knew of it in his grave,

    He would rise alive, and the spirit of his jealous zeal would return.

  69. May God grant you joy in the mighty victory and in the

    Manifest conquest, and in attaining its eminence.

  70. And would that your late father could witness what

    Those present have recounted of you during his absence.

  71. Who will carry word of this conquest from you to his hearing,

    So that you may share equally in its joy?

  72. Give ear—may I be your ransom—to praise from an ally in devotion,

    Bearing true allegiance springing from his creed.

  73. Praise whose cheeks bear the two roses of my shame

    Before you, and whose brow bears my clearest excuse.

  74. Upon its face, from my expectations of your generosity,

    Are traces of beauty, and cheerfulness upon its skin.

  75. You burned my aloeswood with rejection, and it became sweetly fragrant;

    Do you not smell the sweet waft of my praise?

  76. This is what was in my vessel; I have sprinkled it forth,

    So sip the wine of its cup, and delight in its honey.

  77. And forgive—my soul be your ransom—the sin of one who acknowledges

    Your bounty and seeks pardon for his fault.

  78. Be however you wish: I cannot endure being apart from you.

    And be gentle with one whose covenant you are bound to honor.

  79. May you remain, son of Ali, a pillar of the house of eminence,

    Toward whose Kaaba faces bow in prostration.

Sol 6.1